Dynamic Causal Model of FMRI Images for Early Detection in People at Risk of Alzheimers Disease
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Author list: Keerativittatayut, R.;Kaewkamnerdpong, B.;Laothamatas, J.;Tritanon, O.;Sungkarat, W.
Publication year: 2014
Journal: International Journal of Applied Biomedical Engineering (1906-4063)
Volume number: 7
Issue number: 1
Start page: 29
End page: 39
ISSN: 1906-4063
Abstract
Elderly people with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) are considered at heightened risk to develop Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This research was an attempt to develop an AD diagnostic tool under a hypothesis: Mirror Neuron System (MNS) decreases its function due to the disease pathology. Nowadays, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is an effective tool for Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis. However, it is very hard to detect the disease in patients without pathological symptoms or in early stages. Therefore, this research aims to extend the use of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to study the functional connectivity among brain regions and effects of stimuli through modeling neuronal interactions from fMRI time-series using Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM) method. Objectives were to build model of brain regions in three groups (20 normal control, 5 MCI, 7 AD: matched by age 60-70 years old) and investigate connectivity changes from all groups. All 32 subjects were MRI scanned with visual stimuli to study a functional MNS network. Results revealed major activated areas including precentral gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, inferior occipital gyrus, and supplementary motor area. Moreover, results from DCM analyses showed functional connectivity at all connections were different in all groups and signifi- cantly different in inferior occipital gyrus to precentral gyrus and inferior occipital gyrus to SMA. The connection strength of normal group was stronger than those of MCI and AD groups. With further larger group study, the DCM connection strength information may be helpful in evaluating the memory impairment state allowing physicians to detect the diseases in early states, and then intervening the memory deterioration.
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